Hi there. Perhaps one of your maps has appeared on my blog and you are understandably wondering why I would do such a terrible thing to you.

You made — in my opinion — a less than stellar map. It doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person, or that you are untalented, or have no future in cartography. I don’t think that, and I hope that my readers are wise enough to realize the same. Most anyone who’s made a map has birthed a disaster from time to time, either because we’re just starting out, we’re on a tight deadline, or because our clients ordered us to act against our better judgment. We laugh at the result, we critique, and we grow our skills from the experience. Make no mistake: I’m proud of those terrible maps I have made. I hope you are still proud of your work, too.

Your map was amusing and has served, hopefully, an educational role here. My advice is to roll with it, laugh, and keep making better and better maps.